Guild Wars 2

@Osicat, what build is your main right now? Shatter, Shatter with pu, or condi with pu.

@IchigoHatake, I atm mostly run Hidden Cat 2.0 with GS / S&T, Im experementing with travaler vs holebrak runes. I also run 0-20-20-0-30 Shatter Cat Heavy 4.0 some.

I knowthere is a debate around PU and tis not a build looken at with happy eyes. Still, a power PU with GS can fill a huge varity of roles and lack any hardcounters exept in pure duels. Nomatter how good you are at Shatter you will run into some hardcounters if you wvwvw roaming. A good BS thief with good gear, a solid PU condi messmer will stop you. As power PU you can chose who and when to fight, with the GS you effektive in larver scale fights aswell as the build make you a solid roamer. Only part the build lack atm is condi clens and speed. I try to build around this now, why I experement with travaler runes, centaur and condi clens mantra.

/Osicat

Hey Osicat, could you tell me currently the build for the portal mesmer? the videos were great but I am having hard time with finding the build haha. The builds you used in the solo portal tricks, S/S Staff build I believe.

I want to thank you for all of your videos and posts. I’ve slowly been picking up Travelers Runes and want to make sure I use them with optimal armor, so I’m anxiously awaiting your findings. I’ve enjoyed the Hidden Cat build, but also feel the speed in combat would help a lot.

Thanks again!

Hey Osi.
I was wandering,
When you join a zerg/large guild raid in wvw how do you like to contribute to the zerg, do you enjoy being on the frontline, and if so what build, or do you like to pick people of the edges of the enemy zerg?

@Hazahampo, In large scale wvwvw with friends/guild I care about and Im in Hidden Cat build i rearange my utilitys to give as musch support as possible. I stack might and spread around using singnet of the share boons. I use veil instead of decoy and I use timewarp and feedback instead of masinvis and portal (unless portal is needed). I also maninly use GS and try play from the back/mid.

If Im in a random zerg/group, with ppl I mot realy care for I play egoistic. Pick enemy low hp players of, using the chaos of combat to get kills without risk of get focused.

/Osicat

Just wondering, in the Solo portal tricks, which build is that? and is it completely updated to current balance patches?

@All

Hidden Cat 3.0 update:

- After 2 weeks testing I agree. Travaler runes keep u better alive, let you chase ppl and do ok dmg.

-Conditions are better handeled with a mantra of clear conditions.

-With the defensive stats form travaler I can afford another berzerker+vit accended.

http://tinyurl.com/Hidden-Cat-3-0

/Osicat

PS, Il soon come with aupdated version of Shatter Cat Heavy 4.0, travaler runes and some extra power.

Thanks for the update Osi !
I’m glad I don’t have to change my beloved traveler runes…
Really looking forward for the changes to Shatter Cat Heavy now.
Keep up the good work !

Osi what are your thoughts on celest chest/legs/helm? I’ve been trying it out and liked the increase condi damage on top of the other stuff i gain, since it helps any mes build that goes down atleast 15 in dueling (almost all builds :P).

edit: whats the base toughness you shoot for each build…1600?

For the shatter cat 4.0 will the accessories still be the same? and is it okay to still use the old runes you have? I don’t have 61g to spend on runes atm. I was also wondering
instead of cele amulet, calvalier rings, knights and zerker valk earrings, and cavalier back peice.
Could it be Knights amulet, Cavalier rings, Knight and Celetrial/Zerker Earrings and Zerker or Cavalier backpeice?

Hi Osi -

Sorry I’m a noob to Guild Wars, but not to this style game so I apologize if this question is redundant…

I see for the condition cat 3.0 build the armor & weapons you use is toughness, precision and condition damage focused (which makes optimal sense due to the trait tree distribution).

I searched for gear of the same stat mix, but couldn’t find that specific mix (closest I saw was Condition Damage, power and toughness if I remember correctly).

Could you help me figure out what I am doing wrong?

Thanks!!

SwinginRichard.2480:

Hi Osi -

Sorry I’m a noob to Guild Wars, but not to this style game so I apologize if this question is redundant…

I see for the condition cat 3.0 build the armor & weapons you use is toughness, precision and condition damage focused (which makes optimal sense due to the trait tree distribution).

I searched for gear of the same stat mix, but couldn’t find that specific mix (closest I saw was Condition Damage, power and toughness if I remember correctly).

Could you help me figure out what I am doing wrong?

Thanks!!

Rabid gear

Moaning Marv.2194:

SwinginRichard.2480:

Hi Osi -

Sorry I’m a noob to Guild Wars, but not to this style game so I apologize if this question is redundant…

I see for the condition cat 3.0 build the armor & weapons you use is toughness, precision and condition damage focused (which makes optimal sense due to the trait tree distribution).

I searched for gear of the same stat mix, but couldn’t find that specific mix (closest I saw was Condition Damage, power and toughness if I remember correctly).

Could you help me figure out what I am doing wrong?

Thanks!!

Rabid gear

Ah ha, thanks!! I searched Rabid but I am only level 68 and in the search parameters I put 65-68 gear and nothing showed up >_<

Heyhey Osicat,

When do you think we can expect the new Shatter Cat 4.0 build?

great builds. loving the hidden cat

I want a lockdown cat (StudderCat?) to study for roaming! I love felines, and none of these cats suit me. /weep

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I want a lockdown cat (StudderCat?) to study for roaming! I love felines, and none of these cats suit me. /weep

Maybe when we get some AoE daze/stun utility, or something on MH pistol.

Curunen.8729:

Maybe in 2015.

/weep

If anyone missed, have a look at the Shatter Cat Hompage.

http://osicat.weebly.com/index.html

Its regulary updated, also, have a look in “Music Cat” tab for mesmer gameplay music to lift your pvp mood.

/Osicat

Ps, Chaos, have a look and say what you think, it deffo have speed, might make you happy, prob make ppl weep if you duel em in it ) . http://tinyurl.com/Cat-for-Chaos

That looks REALLY interesting Osi, and gives me a lot to study to inventing my own solo roaming-lockdown build couple questions though. (Some quoted from my question to you in the shatterlock thread)

• Do you feel Blink + Decoy absolutely necessary for effective roaming? How about Decoy + Portal instead?

• How effective do you feel this build would be vs multiple opponents?

• Why that specific gear choice?

• after CS is patched, how effective do you feel the build will be?

Ty man!

Hi Chaos.

Il answer you subject by subject.

1: My personal opinion is that Blink is combined with stealth the absolute strongest survival tool we have in WvWvW roaming. It is the only ability we have that let use combined with immunity and or stealth survive a focus fire/aoe target. Portal can serv that purpose in soem ways but only every 90 s and it cant climb where you not already been and droped a exit. Also Blink is the best counter when 2-3 warriors with hammers deccide to play “mesmer ball” with your kitten .

Decoy can be learned to live without, but its still one of our strongest counters to high burst enemy.

2: With staff you will have the tool to fight multipple oponents to change to sword and burst anyone who dropped low. It aso have the survival stats to survive soem heavy incomming fire, witch lead us to nr 3.

3: Always when I make a build I ask myself a number of questions, if its a NO on aly of them I eather drop the build or I change something. This as even If its possible to play with a NO on the question I personaly donf find it fun to have hardcounters. This is why I dont play alot of shatter atm, as it have hardcounters.

the questions is:

guestion 1

Can the build survive a focus from a “skilled and wellgeared BS thief”? : This is a EXTREMLY important question, this as that IS a hardcounter for many of our build, sure many BS thiefs can be killed in many builds, but there is some wery skilled gankers who play on roaming hours.

There is a few key abilitys to survive this skilled BS thiefs, eather you need to have blocks&immunitys so frequent that you never take the full BS+burst&CC combo they land from stealth. Or you have to have stealth long and frequent enought to match their. I prefere a combo, Pu with sword sword give agis and immunity long enought.

In my opinion (I write this as some ppl migt dissagree but this is what I beleve after endless testing in duels versus some in my oppinion extremly skilled thiefs) you also need reliable protection source, a toughness of around 1500-1800 and minimum two stunbrakers. You can survive with less toughness but then you NEED to play spotless and the thief will have bigger odds in winning. The stunbrakers I prefere is Blink, decoy and eather staff 2 or sword leap (both can be used when you are cc,d and work as a backup stunbraker. Note thu for sword to work you need to have the clone out before you get cc,d).

This is one of the reasons I chose the gear setup I have, it give the defensive stats to survive, but also enought OMPF to kill ppl. The celestial on chest is as alternative is Kight but then I drop low on crit dmg.

question 2

Can I handle conditions? If its a NO then I go to question 3 or fix the issue

question 3

If im starting to lose the fight or big incomming enemy team, can I escape any class? For this you NEED stealth and fast incombat mobility. Here blink,portal, travaler runes, staff, sword 3 and stealth al play a core role.

4:

Kinda sure the build not stadning or falling on this trait, its core traits is PU, Empowered illusions and fury on phantasms. This is where main part of your dmg&survival will come from, the halting strike and CS will give you the controll to force the fight in your own way.

If I suggest any changes I would consider to get staff cd, 50 toughness trait instead of the might on interupt. This will give some amazing mobility. Also veil isntead of blink is a option if playing in a team.

/Osicat

New video

Some group play.

/Osicat

So what is the main shatter build for wvw roaming atm? What is the weap/gear set up? Not sure if outdated but confusing whether shatter builds are PU or require illusionary persona.

Firstly, great work assisting the mesmer population Osicat. I am pretty new to GW2 and am currently leveling my mesmer. I am trying to find a build that is useful for PvE and that is easily adapted to WvW. I was thinking of running Condition Cat in WvW and modifying it into a more Phantasm/Condition/Support Hybrid Build for Leveling and basic PvE. This is what I came up with; (I haven’t put the gear and runes in yet since its just a theory)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArcWnUEFQbUNW1gWbkw0jgjcfTShqRdJF4m3A-jUCBINAkIA5QFRjVJL1qbY6YCRmbo2cDRzMGWKAIWDA-w
I chose Condition Cat because I can experience some general latency and lag and have found this stops my shatter play from being optimal.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Keep up the great guides.
Auserk

EDIT: I have done a bit more testing this build in PvE and have found that using GS/Staff has a constant stream of clones, good direct damage, effective condition damage and still has useful interrupts on both weapon sets. To make this change I swapped Blade Training for Deceptive Evasion (which I swap for Mantra Mastery if i am running both Mantra of Resolve and Mantra of Distraction). I also my swap out Signet of Inspiration and Null Field for Mantra of Resolve and Mantra of Distraction when solo. I am enjoying this build so far and I am sure i will continue to tweak it.

Liked the new vid, gave me a god idea of how to be more effective in WvW teams when I am with my guild. Have fun at work.
Auserk

Il answer your q when I ge back form work, untill then enjoy latets vid.

Its still uploading but running to work atm.

/Osicat

Hey Osi,
Was playing around with the build editor looking for a way to hit the same stats as Hidden Cat 3.0 with the zerk trinkets I already have for PvE, and came up with the following:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8flwzKqHTTkGb9IhpHE33AnkCV/6SKwttB-jUCBYgCypmQ5mKrZnBsMsIas6aYKXER12cDRzaO1SBMqyI-w

Based on the critical damage chart:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Critical_hit
and the stats reported from hovering over the equipment icon in the build editor, I believe this setup is actually slightly better as the toughness/vitality are both slightly higher, and the direct damage the same or better. Also due to shifting to precision instead of critical damage %, it will proc more bleeds from clones.

Let me know what you think!

I can’t wait for the description of Heavy Cat 4.0 =)

Also, of this builds which one would you recommend for dungeons, PVE and personal history?

I know they are thought for WvW, but Which one of the 3 builds can be adapted easier (no re-trait or having two armor sets since I have very little gold) like changing traits but only in the same line and maybe change skills. but keep same armor and trait points. Thanks a lot Osicat!

@Emissary, YEs seems nice tbh, I accualy experementing with even more crit and toughness atm and blood stacks for extremely high power base.

@SuperJugy, I sue Hidden cat for dunegeons. It do wery wery nice dmg and it stay alive. Stacked and with might it get over 4k toghness. I change the torch trait for GS trait thu.

/Osicat

Hello Osi,
I’m a big fan of your heavy shatter 3.0 build and has been trying it out on my mesmer since I started playing gw2. I have a couple of questions in mind.

Recently I feel like I can’t keep up with my group and so I thought about changing to your condition build. However I’m a bit concern with the change in DE. Many speculated that this would cripple PU build. Does this change seriously affect your condition, hidden and power build?

I’m also curious about the might stacks in power build, in the past I used to rely on pistol or focus and diversions to interrupt people, which can interrupt in large scale and boost my might to 15 or above. With the power build would GS be the main source of might stacking?

Also this may sound really silly, but I noticed you prefer superior sigil of battle a lot in might builds. Would superior sigil of strength also do in power build?

@Nicenikeshoe, hi mate. Sorry for late answer, work is crazy atm. When you say you can’t keep up with your group do you mean in terms of speed or survival?.

For the changes to DE I have no idea where the doomsday ideas come from, I even seen ppl on other forums recommend ppl to not roll Mesmer as the class will get heavy nerfed as they say. In my opinion this is a huge misunderstanding for the class and I tbh can’t understand why ppl think its a nerf at all except for a few builds who live on overwrite clones.

Tbh, explain for me why nerf to DE is a nerf to PU builds? Only 1 special kind of PU build use the overlapping and that’s is the condition build known as backwater and a few others. The normal condition builds mainly use the De to make sure you have 3 staff clones up at al time with de still will provide.

The power PU builds don’t even use DE.

Might stacking in hidden cat come from 2 main sources. Weapon swaps give might and do this as long you stay in combat, even if you are in stealth. GS and daze shatters give boosts of might for burst. Also the GS bounce give might

I don’t like strength on a power PU build as it need you to attack al time to get might, you can’t attack when you are in stealth with your main weapon and instead you want to summon phantasm in stealth who dmg without give revealed. While you do this battle still give might.

/Osicat

hi Osi, thank you so much for clearing that out for me. Now I have a much better idea on the condition and hidden cat build.

For the heavy shatter build, I suppose it’s because I’m not really good at constantly interrupting people for might stacks. During a group battle, I can deliver a good initial burst but at sustain fight I feel like its hard to gain enough might to contribute to damage. Although I’m pretty confident in surviving at zerg fights.

Hi all,

enjoy

http://youtu.be/psxWSg-AuGQ

/Osicat

Enjoy!

/Osicat

Osicat.4139:

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asExRCMru0c

/Osicat

Video is blocked here in US on copyright grounds (because of the music used in the video)

@PandaBear, sad to hear, its just a short clip anyway atleast.

@All, New PU Power Promo video. Insane burst PU gameplay. enjoy.

/Osicat

Hey Osi,

Love the hidden cat build. I was just wandering though whether it is possible for it to work with a staff? Just because I am working on bifrost and would like to use it all the time!!

Ty
Lyss

@hazahampo, Build work well with staff as it’s mightstaching and base condition dmg give a good pressure. Just need to learn when not to use chaos field as it get you revieled. Also might be worth get staff trait when roaming as it make you fast as a lightning with traited staff 1200 blink and traveler runes.

/osicat

Hello Osi,

I’ve really enjoyed using and tinkering with your builds. I’ve had some great success using all 3 of them, but lately I’ve been focusing more on the Shatter Cat build. I really like the potential present in the high skill cap of the shatter mesmer; it feels rewarding to learn and master. Unfortunately, I’ve been getting progressively more annoyed by the recent iWarden attack bug and have started looking for alternatives. I tried sword/sword for a while and though I liked it I felt the animation lock time of iRiposte was too punishing to use effectively. I would like to ask what your opinion on sword/pistol would be for a Shatter Cat variant. As well as what, if any, trait changes you would recommend for such a build.

On another note, what is your opinion on Signet of Ether for the Hidden Cat build? It seems like it could work well, especially with the Signet Mastery out of the domination tree reducing its cooldown close to Ether Feast’s. Although doing so would require one to drop the 15% illusion damage, the extra phantasm uptime and passive heals sound like they could be a good fit for the build.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

@Sentient, I been experementing with both s/s, Staff/Gs and even sword/pistol/staff for the Shatter Cat Heavy. Al work more depending on the player than the overwhelming effectivity of the build. I have a feeling best setup atm is eather s/p/staff or s/s/staff both atm traited for staff cd.

Pverall shatter atm is working for the ppl who play well enouth to lift the build, but fact remain, a-net’s nerf of sword 2, bugg of sword leap and buff to other classes (mainly warrior) make shatter less effective than another class/specc.

Atm there is only 2 solid roaming builds for mesmer who not is hardcountered by a skilled thief or a team with cc and condis.

Hidden Cat
Condition PU (Blackwater or condition cat.)

Phantasms build work aswell but are uneffective in to many situations in wvwvw to be a good option in my opinion.

Signet of Eather is a wery interesting healing setup, Its 2 big backsides is 1 its not a effective heal vs landed burst (try duel a good bs thief and you endup play defensive 70% of the fight) 2 its depening on your clone,s meanng in group fights when your pahnatsm and clones die as fast as you generate em you will lack healing.

Atm I feel its better for the Condition Cat build as its a build suppose to be played defensively, Hidden cat is a extremly agressive build (what alot of ppl missunderstand with the build alot due to teh fact ist a PU build) and a heal who forces you to play defensive make the Hidden Cat less effective.

/Osicat

Group combat as Hidden Cat mesmer.

/Osicat

Osi, thank you so much for your contributions to the Mesmer community, you really rock!

I have a question, how do you deal with Warriors with the Hidden Cat spec? I tend to run to them and I just cannot kill them especially when they use hammer/GS. They kill all my illusions and their mobility makes shattering almost impossible, while regenerating and cleansing themselves constantly. Any hints?

@Erithus, Key is to understand Warriors using signet. They got superb survival due to long passive healing. To get them down you need to dps more than they heal passivly and to do this you need to cut edges. If your phantasm is about to die a shatter can give a good cc or dmg source. Traited for boonstrip a warrior fight is ALOT easier (20-20-30, drop torch in favour for boonstrip).

This fight is accualy me attacked and succesfully fighting off 3 warriors, it start just after I downed 1 of them.

/Osicat

Great advice and awesome video, thanks!

Updated Hidden Cat to 4.0

/Osicat

Hi Osicat, always a fan of your specs & gear choices.

Wanted to ask about your changes to HIdden Cat (4.0)… I see you added a TON of toughness to your build. Just want to know your reasoning. I imagine either:
-you needed the defense or
-you were overkill on offense, and adding defense just makes sense

The reason I ask is because I run a VERY similar gear set-up, but I’m still working on the ascended gear… feedback always helps make the smartest decision. Don’t want to craft a piece and figure out I needed something else!

My gear set-up: Build Here
Simply put, you have +214 armor, whereas I have +235 effective power (ish)… and the difference in effective power only goes up as you include things like might stacks, blood stacks, fury, etc.

Edit: added link and thoughts

@Loadin, Seems you got a solid setup there, personaly I would change the manipulation cd trait for 3% defense/ clone, giving you 42% less dmg take with protection up. Also would probobly go for precision stacking over 5% crit as stacking buff your phantasms and clones while 5% crit is only for you.

Biggest weakness for every shatter build atm roaming in current meta is a: Thiefs, b: conditions. Thiefs you cant do alot about as a good and wellgeared thief 1vs1 can drop you more than 50% in every opener, and you cant heal that up and he have more opener than you have defenses. Best defense is to not get caught 1 vs 1. For condition you need to beef some vitality, mabye pack condi lovering food (as you not have holbreak runes you will struggle a bit with condis).

@Myrias, the build gained toughness, vit while it’s preci remain high and power extremely high. This seve several purposes. First the PU power synergies superb with toughness, it’s traiting give a condi pressure based on might and % toughness! the high crit give good bleed apply. The sharpening stones give power on toughness so it’s a sweet stat.

Also lately I spent more and more time fight in 5 man team with experienced roamers, Zerg diving and fighting extremely outnumbered and still not gone down. A higher toughness give better ability to res, it also only cost % crit dmg.

Crit dmg in its own is a rather expensive stat for PU power. This as it have a high number of attacks and dmg who not rely on the stat. Retaliation, condi dmg on clone crits. It’s high dmg also make it deal good dmg with less need of crit or crit dmg.

This change also prepare the build a bit for the changes to crit dmg, power will get a even more valuable stat when crit dmg gets nerfed.

/Osicat

Is there a reason you went with Bloodlust over Perception Sigil in this build? I’m not seeing any meaningful difference in effective power, but if you start adding Might stacks it looks like Perception is actually better than Bloodlust (still marginally).

With Bloodlust being 5 times the cost of Perception I’d suggest people go with perception over bloodlust if you don’t already have a bloodlust sigil (may be better post ferocity). Is anyone else seeing this? I might be making some errors.

In theory I find Bloodlust more useful than perception in this build. Full perception stacks only increase sword 2 burst critical chance from 47% to 60%. Phantasmal fury also added significant amount of crit chance (67% in 14.5 seconds) on izerker. While going from 67% chance to 79% for phantom crit has slightly more potential, I feel like 67% with +250 power can deliver more consistent damage.

But I must agree on Bloodlust’s price though, currently I can only use perception.
/weep

On iPhone so short answer. Bloodlust 3 reasons.

1- Crit with furu for phantasm already high, more dmg of interest.
2- Retaliation more viable due to high toughness, even traiting for Retaliation on block some times. Retaliation scale with power.
3- lower crit dmg in latest build = less value of crit, and in next balance patch will crit dmg be even less of value due to crit dmg nerf. This inc value of power over preci in terms of dmg.

/Osicat